MLW, NJPW, and CMLL present Fantastica Mania U.S.A. in Charleston, SC on Saturday, April 12.
Shotzi is in Major League Wrestling for the long haul. With the return of MLW Fusion this year, Shotzi has signed with the promotion to be the face of the women’s division.
In a recent interview with SlamWrestling.net ahead of this weekend, the former NXT mainstay, known there as Shotzi Blackheart, was open about her decision to sign with MLW.
“When my WWE contract expired, I told myself that I wouldn’t sign anywhere for a year, maybe two. I felt like I needed that time to just find myself, get back on my feet wrestling and not be locked down anywhere. But being at MLW, they just immediately understood my character and the creative. It has been so much fun and everybody that they have me wrestle has been amazing.”
Currently on her independent wrestling career, she bumped into Indi Hartwell from WWE, whom she knows very well.
“[There is] a chemistry that has grown through time because I did Shimmer and RISE with her before we both got signed to WWE. We actually got signed around the same time. We took our ‘Property of Performance Center’ pictures together. So our journeys have been flowing in the same direction for a while, and then we came back to the Indies at similar times.”
“We’ve just been there through different eras of our career, so I had that weird connection with her that just also plays in the ring whenever we have a match.”
But an even bigger rivalry with Priscilla Kelly goes back to both womens’ time in WWE and has followed them wherever they appear.
“Priscilla Kelly is my wrestling soul mate, whether it’s us tagging or us facing each other. I don’t have more chemistry with anyone than with her. I love the matches that we put on. We could have the most gnarly death matches, and then we could go have really awesome tag matches together, all in the same beat. She brings something out of me that’s really magical, and I love facing her or teaming up with her.”
Since being a regular on the independents, Shotzi has also recently had first-time matches with some wrestlers she’d love to face again. Both Mina Shirakawa (House of Glory on March 21), and Megan Bayne (GCW on December 9) of AEW are on the Ballsy Badass’ carnage list.
“Mina is great. I love her character. She is so much fun. That was a wild ride because I was wrestling two hours away at Gremlin House. So I was on the first match over there, then I took an Uber two hours to House of Glory. As soon as my Uber got to the venue, the match before ours had just ended, so I pretty much had to get out of the Uber, and then make my entrance. So that was a wild ride, which I’m sorry for Mina Shirakawa, because that’s very stressful for someone. Especially when we’ve never wrestled before.”
As for “The Megasus” Megan Bayne, Shotzi is very ecstatic of their first encounter despite taking a loss.
“She’s very intimidating but she gave me a really awesome match. A lot of fans came up to us afterwards saying that we had the match of the night. I agree with them. I thought we tore it down. It’s one of my favorite matches from last year. To be honest, I would love to get in there with her again. When you wrestle someone for the first time, you’re still figuring each other out. But now that I know her, and I’ve wrestled her before, I want to wrestle her again. I know that we’ll have a lot of fun all over again.”
There’s no telling where Shotzi could show up next, aside from being a constant presence in MLW Fusion.
“I’m really excited to see where MLW goes. Fusion is coming back. So I’m really excited for everyone to start watching weekly. You can watch it on YouTube and BeIN Sports when that starts airing. There are a lot of crazy storylines that MLW has planned, and I’m just excited for it to all come to fruition. It’s going to be a good time.”
Looking back on her decision to sign with Major League Wrestling, Shotzi has high expectations of herself.
“I immediately wanted to prove that I could be the face of this company and be the leader in a locker room. So when they asked if I would sign, it was a no-brainer. I’ve been having such a good time [in MLW].”
Why not keep that momentum going?
MLW, NJPW, and CMLL present Fantastica Mania U.S.A. in Charleston, SC on Saturday, April 12.
